When you have Patrick Mahomes and you still have a losing record, your defense must be playing poorly. And the Chiefs’ defense is playing as poorly as any team ever has.
Kansas City is allowing a stunning 7.1 yards per play this season. That’s not just the worst average this year, it’s the worst average in NFL history.
The previous all-time low belongs to the 2015 Saints, whose defense allowed 6.6 yards per play. So the Chiefs aren’t just on pace for the worst mark ever, they’re eclipsing that pace by half a yard per play.
The good news for the Chiefs is, defense tends to be inconsistent from week to week, and a defense that’s on an all-time awful pace at the start of the season doesn’t necessarily turn out to be the worst defense in the league.
Still, those 2015 Saints should be a cautionary tale. They went 7-9 despite Drew Brees throwing for an NFL-high 4,870 passing yards. Even a future Hall of Fame quarterback can’t do it all himself.